Glen Oaks Escrow recently closed its first bitcoin transaction, the Glendale, Calif.-based company announced.
The purchased involved the purchase of a condo in Costa Mesa, Calif. Glen Oaks Escrow accepts bitcoin payments through BitPay, which acts as the payment processor and is used to verify the funds.
“We made the decision in 2018 to start accepting bitcoin payments, and we are thrilled that we did,” Glen Oaks Chief Operating Officer Joe Curtis said in a release. “This real estate transaction exemplifies that, while a young technology in our industry, Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have the potential to become a bigger part of real estate transactions. And, we’re very proud to be at the forefront to enable transactions in this way.”
Curtis said an increasing number of participants in the real estate process are accepting bitcoin.
“While many are still trying to understand how cryptocurrencies fit into the real estate industry, we continue to see the growth of usage in other markets,” Curtis said. “In March, two multi-billion-dollar companies started accepting Bitcoin for payments – Avnet, a Phoenix-based electronic supplier and Digitec Galaxus AG – a Swiss-based online retail store. We are confident that this new way of doing business will increase in our industry, and we’re proud to be paving the way for this technology.”